Motor insurance costs could fall by further 50%

MOTOR insurance costs could fall by a further 50%, an insurance expert said yesterday.

Dorothea Dowling, the non-executive chairperson of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board (PIAB), said there was still room for “substantial savings” for motorists through greater enforcement of road safety legislation. She also told an Oireachtas committee that six legal firms are responsible for 14% of all PIAB compensation awards which are rejected by claimants, despite the fact that they are unlikely to secure bigger compensation pay-outs through the courts.

Ms Dowling said such solicitors — though they were in a minority — were engaging in the “cynical practice” of rejecting almost every case decided by PIAB.